


below my soul i feel an engine

by pawn_vs_player



Series: Select File: DFT://s0u!!3ss_+_d3t3rm1n4t10n [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alphys Needs a Hug, Anxiety Disorder, Apathy, Emotions are Complicated, Established Alphys/Undyne, F/F, Flowey Swearing, Gen, Houseplant Flowey, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Nice Flowey, POV Flowey, Passive-aggression, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, References to Undertale Genocide Route, Unconventional Friendship, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, aka: that one ending where floweypot lives with alphyne instead of frisk, floweypot - Freeform, like...relatively, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2018-12-20 14:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11923281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pawn_vs_player/pseuds/pawn_vs_player
Summary: There is no way out, no rescue. Chara has control of the timeline, Sans is out of reach, and the VOID's attention is elsewhere.Sometimes the way to get a happy ending is to simply refuse to accept a bad one.(In which Alphys, Flowey, and Undyne make the best of a bad timeline and Chara's victory is just out of reach.)





	below my soul i feel an engine

**Author's Note:**

> *So... is the author the only one who's read the hilarious/feelsy comic about Undyne & Flowey becoming rage buddies?  
> *Yes? No?  
> *Either way, it's one of the influences behind this ending of Soulless Route, so it gets a shoutout. 
> 
> *Alright, lovelies! Which one of you wanted a timeline where Sans is under Chara's control forever?!  
> *...No one? Nobody? Okay then.  
> *WELL, YOU'RE GETTING ONE ANYWAY!  
> *If you wanted a nice fairy-tale ending where everyone is happy and all the plot threads are tied up in a neat bow, why are you reading DefectTale?  
> *The author hopes you enjoy.

Alphys doesn't talk to you again for a month. You tell yourself it's because she's working, doing her genius scientist thing to break the two of you out of this awful loop and save Sans- it's not because she's tired of you, or anything. She just- has more important things to do than soothe your dumb insecurities, that's all.

When she does come back, she's crying. Your non-existent soul sinks like a stone.

"It didn't work," you say very quietly, already knowing what's coming.

She's sobbing too hard to speak at first. She collapses down beside you, shaking, fat tears sliding down her yellow-scaled face.

"I, I, I c-c-can't save h-him, I've g-g-got-gotta save him, b-but I c-c- _can't,_ th-the math wo-wo-won't, won't line u-up, n-nothing li-lines up, it doesn't w-wo-work and I can't- I c-c-can't-"

Your vines reach up from the ground, thorns replaced with soft leaves. "Hey," you say. "C'mere."

She falls against your vines, tears dripping to the ground and into your roots. The salt itches, but you don't say anything. Instead, you wrap one large leaf around her shoulder and shift her against your vine into a more comfortable position. You have no soul, but something deep inside still aches terribly.

"There's nothing you can do?" you ask, just once, just one more time.

The shake of her head and shudder of her shoulders is all the answer you need.

You slump, letting your head thump down against the dirt.

It's hopeless. Utterly hopeless. You're trapped here, forever; Frisk's gone, Chara's evil, and Sans-

The less said about what Sans has become, the better.

"I, I, I'm s-s-so, so s-s-sorry." Alphys curls up tight like one of those surface animals, the spikey ones- hedgehogs. The grass smears green across her lab coat.

You stroke her scaly head carefully with one of your leaves. You have no soul, and you can't explain why you do these things, but that doesn't stop you from doing them.

"You did your best," you say, and you believe that. "It's not like it was an easy task, Alphys. It's not your fault if it's out of your league."

She's still shaking.

"S-S-Sans," she says. You flinch.

"Let's... let's not talk about him right now," you say quietly. It's more of a request, really.

She quiets, then, and for a long time the only sounds on your hilltop are the sounds of a woman grieving for an entire world cruelly torn from her grasp.

 

She cries for hours. You are silent beside her, trying very hard not to think. 

You watch the sky wheel by overhead. You can't help but think,  _The sun isn't worth all this._

 

 

Alphys is left in no shape to move after her sobfest, but the sun is setting and Undyne will tear through the entire town (and you probably) if Alphys doesn't make it home on time. You have no desire to be accused of kidnapping the ex-Royal Scientist. 

"Come on, Alphys," you sigh. "You need to go home before your psycho girlfriend spears me."

She doesn't move, still huddled up into her silent ball of misery. 

You groan loudly. "Fuck, fine. If you're gonna be like that, I'll have to do something drastic."

Usually, threatening to be dramatically evil gets Alphys back to normal, but... 

This time is nothing like usual.

"Ugh." You hate yourself. How the fuck did you manage to go soft for the monster who made you into this soulless husk of a person?

_Smiling brown eyes, soft blue fabric, hushed conversations, constellations, sunlight._

...Right. That's how. 

"If she kills me it's your fault," you grumble, "and I will never ever forgive you."

You push your roots out of the ground, careful to keep the thorny ones away. You'll  _definitely_ get killed if Undyne finds a scratch on Alphys. 

Slowly, you bundle Alphys up in your vines, hoisting her off the ground in a little container. She uncurls just slightly, letting her head fall to one side, the spines on her head sliding against the leaves on your vines. "You better now?" you ask hopefully, ready to dump her back out, but she closes her eyes and tightens the grip her arms have around her legs. 

"Ugh, alright, I get the message." You glare down the hill at Ebotton. "Fuck. How am I gonna get you down there?"

Thank the stars Alphys refused to live in the middle of town with the rest of her little clique. If Toriel saw you, or - or  _Chara_ \- you'd be dead in seconds, burned or sliced to bits, and Alphys would be alone like this, crippled with grief. She wouldn't be able to defend herself. Toriel wouldn't hurt her, but she'd have no idea how to help, either, and Chara - Chara doesn't help anyone but themself, even if they haven't killed anyone this run yet, either. 

Anyway. 

Alphys and Undyne live on the outskirts of town, nearer to the mountain than any of the other monsters. Alphys told you she wanted to be close to her old lab, and she was anxious about living in the crush of people, and you're sure that's all Undyne needed to hear for her to cave, but you also know that Alphys wanted to be as far from the human child as she could. 

She didn't tell you that, but you know it anyway, the way Alphys knows the reason you refuse to come to town is less to do with Chara than you like to pretend. 

"I hate you," you mutter.

Your root network is stretched under most of the town by now. Usually, for you to get to town, you'd just need to send yourself along one of them and, ta-da, there you are, popping out of the dirt with your signature smirk. 

Alphys, however, needs to breathe, and cannot draw oxygen from anything but air. So you need to transport her to her house without taking her under the earth. But, aboveground, anyone could see her. 

"Why are you like this," you whine, mentally working through your map of your root system. It's sunset, there's rarely anyone in the foothills at all and definitely not at night, it'll hurt and the dirt will suffer but you  _should_ be able to drag her along with you to the edge of Ebotton if you're careful. 

You thicken the vines connecting Alphys' little box to yourself. If they snap, she'll go tumbling out and Undyne will murder you brutally. 

Finally, you're ready to transport her. You take a useless breath, check your route once more, begin sliding under the dirt - 

"Alphys!"

Your head pops  _right_ back up. It's her. Oh shit. 

You untangle Alphys from your vines and zip away, emerging a good few yards away. She's slumped on the ground, her coat grimy and eyes still shut. You'd be worried if you still had a soul. Instead, you're curious. Thousands of RESETs, and you've never seen her shut down like this.

"ALPHYS!"

Undyne comes barreling up the hill, red hair streaming behind her like a ribbon. She skids to a stop by Alphys's side, and you watch her loud worry turn to gentle concern.

She drops down to her knees and pulls Alphys into her lap, uncaring of the dirt smearing across both of their legs. She presses Alphys' spiny head into the crook of her neck and strokes a hand down the lizard monster's back. 

"Hey, Alphie," she murmurs, barely loud enough for you to hear. "Hey, can you hear me?" Her hand continues, up down up down, a steady pattern. "Okay, I think you can hear me. Can you reply?"

Nothing. Alphys is as still as she has been for the past hour. 

"That's a no, then." Undyne sounds softer than you've ever heard her be before. She stands, cradling Alphys carefully against her chest. "I'm taking you home now, sweetheart. I'm gonna run you a bath and then we can cuddle and maybe watch some anime, and whenever you're ready to come back I'll be waiting."

She walks off down the hill, continuing the soft litany of reassurances and narration. You think you see Alphys' eyes fluttering, blinking a few times as she's carried away. 

You know you see Alphys nuzzling into the side of Undyne's throat, and Undyne's free hand rubbing at the spines on her girlfriend's head. 

You stay there for a while, looking up at the stars. 

How often does that happen, that Undyne knows how to deal with it so easily?

Why didn't you notice? 

A wind rustles the grass and your petals. You come to a decision.

You're not going to wallow in your misery, not like Alphys is. That's handing Chara their victory on a silver platter, garnished with human souls and monster dust.

No. Fuck that.

You're Flowey, the rightful prince of this world's future. You've destroyed as many timelines as Chara and Frisk, and you weren't weak enough to regret them.

You _aren't_ weak. You aren't a crybaby anymore. Chara doesn't get to control what you do anymore.

 

The stars are cold and remote, twinkling from distances you can barely comprehend. They care nothing for your timeline, for your world, for your troubles, for you. Yet you fought so hard to get out and see them. 

What was it even for?

 

~~_Stargazing, fireworks, laughter. A clean white smile and a pair of welcoming arms._ ~~

~~_Fresh air in your leaves and warm earth packed around your roots._ ~~

~~_A decorated pot, set in a windowsill, bathed in sunlight._ ~~

 

 

 

...Yeah. 

It was for who you had been, and it was for all those souls you'd failed once upon a time. And it was for you, too, as broken as you are now.

It was for  _freedom._

You can't RESET anymore, but maybe that doesn't need to matter. Without time as your plaything, you have limits, but maybe those limits are for the better.

Tomorrow, you decide. Tomorrow, you're going to stop letting Chara crush you under their thumb. 

Tomorrow, you're going to stop being a coward. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> *=)  
> *More to come, dearies!


End file.
